Remembering What Was New: the Role of Novelty and Stimulation in Retrospective Evaluation of Experiences

Rajesh Bhargave, University of Pennsylvania

Prior research has demonstrated that gestalt characteristics of an extended affective experience – such as the peak, end, and trend of its hedonic profile – heavily predict its retrospective, global evaluation. The present investigation explores how stimulus novelty moderates the importance of these characteristics. It is proposed that immediate global evaluations of familiar experiences rely heavily on gestalt characteristics, but these characteristics fade in importance for delayed evaluations. In contrast, for novel experiences, gestalt characteristics become more important in determining delayed vs. immediate global evaluations.

[ to cite ]:Rajesh Bhargave (2008) ,"Remembering What Was New: the Role of Novelty and Stimulation in Retrospective Evaluation of Experiences", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 35, eds. Angela Y. Lee and Dilip Soman, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 914-914.